Avalanche Forecast
Issued: Dec 19th, 2020 3:00PM
The alpine rating is , the treeline rating is , and the below treeline rating is Known problems include Wind Slabs and Persistent Slabs.
matt,
Avalanche Canada
Sheltered areas at treeline are your best bet for good skiing. The alpine has seen better days, it's looking pretty wind blasted. Best to avoid it for awhile.
Summary
Confidence
High -
Weather Forecast
Snow is coming! Snow is expected to start around midnight and bring about 12cm by Sunday evening. If that wasn't enough, even more is coming for Monday afternoon. I won't say how much though...don't want to scare it off. As the snow plays through on Sunday temps will fall to -12 by evening. Winds will continue to be very strong in the alpine, but lower areas should escape the full brunt. Only 6-10km at valley bottom.
Avalanche Summary
Nothing was seen today in the Northern Spray area.
Snowpack Summary
A few centimeters came in last night, which helped the skiing. Oddly enough, the winds haven't taken a huge toll on the treeline elevation. Great skiing was had today in sheltered treeline areas. The alpine is a different story...and not in a good way. Extensive wind transport has crossloaded most features and stripped the westerly aspects to gravel. Windslabs are widespread, and plump. Overall the snowpack is doing well with no scary layers. The Dec 9th and Nov 5th are down 45cm & 90cm at treeline.
Terrain and Travel
- Watch for newly formed and reactive wind slabs as you transition into wind affected terrain.
- If you are increasing your exposure to avalanche terrain, do it gradually as you gather information.
Problems
Wind Slabs
There are new surface windslabs on all Easterly aspects today. Test them in small terrain before committing to bigger terrain.
Aspects: North, North East, East, South East, South.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Persistent Slabs
So far the new load isn't waking this layer up, but given our uncertainty we are still calling the trigger-ability "reactive" versus stubborn Rocky areas are the most likely places to find it as a problem.
Aspects: All aspects.
Elevations: Alpine, Treeline.
Likelihood
Expected Size
Valid until: Dec 20th, 2020 3:00PM
